HIAS in Washington: Week in Review

Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society - Over 126 Years of Experience in Rescue, Reunion, and Resettlement

The HIAS Washington DC office invites you to join its email updates list. If you are concerned about the plight of refugees, immigrants and asylum seekers, the HIAS in Washington listserv will keep you up to date with concise weekly emails covering top stories and highlighting current HIAS efforts. You will also receive HIAS Action Alerts and Special Reports about refugees and other immigrants at risk. Subscribe now!

Latest Issue

HIAS in Washington: Week in Review

May 2, 2008

In this issue…
*Dangerous Passage: Desperate Migrants Attempt to Reach the UK
*Desperate People Take Extreme Measures: Lessons from the Jewish Experience
*Flawed Bill 287(g) Fails to Pass in Arizona
*Border Trip Puts a Human Face on Migration
*Spotlight On: The Irony of U.S. Immigration Laws

Dangerous Passage: Desperate Migrants Attempt to Reach the UK
As a result of increasingly restrictive immigration laws and policies in Western countries and worsening macro-economic conditions at home, migrants are resorting to ever more dangerous tactics to cross borders. In northern France, thousands of undocumented migrants each year from the Middle East, Asia and Africa attempt to make the dangerous crossing into Britain, attracted by economic opportunities. Once in the port cities of northern France, migrants attempt to stow away on trucks or ships while others pay smugglers to help get them into the UK.
A recent New York Times article highlighted the desperate situation of undocumented migrants in northern France, pointing out that:

Still, thousands of migrants, mostly Afghans, Kurds and Eritreans, flock to Calais and other northern French ports each year, where they huddle in makeshift camps and try to dodge the police as they wait for the chance to make the dangerous crossing. French efforts to shut down the camps and arrest the migrants have done little to deter them from seeking a better future in Britain, drawn by the English language, the absence of national identity cards and the possibility of illegal work.
The passage is rough. Britain says that it thwarted 18,000 illicit attempts to get to England last year. Truck drivers often take matters into their own hands, beating stowaways for damaging their loads.
But the migrants are desperate. On a recent night, a group stood around a fire in a derelict sawmill behind the Calais train station as melt from a late spring snow dripped through the roof. One 22-year-old, fleeing open-ended military service in Eritrea, drew a glowing metal rod from the embers and dragged it slowly across his fingertips, searing off his fingerprints.
"It doesn't hurt," he said, displaying hands yellow with scar tissue. Like other migrants interviewed for this article, he would not give his name. Others, also hoping to dodge the European fingerprint database, use razor blades.
The camps around Calais have become semipermanent way stations on the migration route to Britain from Asia and the Horn of Africa. Today's migrants, mostly men in their 20s and many minors, have paid too much and come too far to turn back here, despite their precarious existence.

Desperate People Take Extreme Measures: Lessons from the Jewish Experience
Desperate migrants taking extreme measures to cross borders is also a pressingly real problem in the United States. A recent Editorial in the Jewish News of Greater Phoenix explores the history of Jewish migration to the United States, much of which took place illegally around the turn of the 19th century. The editorial quotes HIAS President and CEO Gideon Aronoff, who notes that:
"One need not, and should not, condone the practice of undocumented migration," writes Gideon Aronoff, head of the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, "but can understand that desperate people take extreme measures."

Aronoff goes on to point out that the U.S. immigration system did not impose visa limits for low-skilled immigrant workers until after 1921 - in other words, after the wave that brought most of the ancestors of today's Jewish Americans to the United States - and that today's migrants face "an unreasonable annual quota of only 5,000 slots."

Nevertheless, immigrants keep dreaming of a better life here. And, in turn, the American economy has come to depend on them.

Flawed Bill 287(g) Fails to Pass in Arizona
Due to the inability of Congress to pass comprehensive immigration reform measures, some communities and towns have implemented harsh, punitive policies against undocumented migrants. On Monday, April 28th, Governor Janet Napolitano of Arizona bucked this trend and vetoed bill 287(g), decrying its expense and impracticality. An April 30th New York Times article explained:
Governor Napolitano dismissed the bill as impractical and expensive. She said it would have imposed an undue burden on local law enforcement, calculating that the cost of training that many officers under the federal program known as 287(g) could total $100 million - with no guarantee that the federal government would pay.
She also could have called it dangerous. The bill would have turned practically every level of law enforcement in Arizona into some form of the feared la migra. Police chiefs across the country warn that would cripple their ability to investigate crime in immigrant communities. The 287(g) program is also far too prone to abuse.
That is already flagrantly clear in Arizona's most populous county, Maricopa, where Sheriff Joe Arpaio has built the biggest 287(g) posse in the country - 160 officers - and deployed it in Hispanic neighborhoods, pulling people over for broken taillights and other traffic infractions and checking papers.
Defenders of the Maricopa raids deny accusations of racial profiling, but it is hard to see it as anything else. The highly publicized sweeps have reaped bumper crops of fear and anger among Latino Arizonans - citizens and illegal immigrants - who have endured the stops, the flashing lights, the requests for papers.

Border Trip Puts a Human Face on Migration
Currently, there are 12 million undocumented immigrants in the United States. Recent debates over immigration policy, such as bill 287(g), have focused attention on enforcement measures instead of comprehensive immigration reform. It is easy to forget that there are real people risking their lives each day to cross the US-Mexico border. According to the Latin American Working Group, between October 2006 and November 2007 alone, there were 340 deaths along the border.

On a recent trip to the Arizona border, Rabbi Steve Gutow witnessed a number of undocumented migrants wandering through the desert. He reflects on this experience in an April 28th article in the Arizona Daily Star, noting that:
How we treat the 12 million like them who are already here in many ways colors who we are as Americans. How we react to those who want to enter our borders and become part of our country says a lot about how well we remember our own stories when we were immigrants looking for a safe haven from religious and ethnic persecution, a place to rest and live and prosper.
Citizenship must be attained lawfully - by no means should this country open its borders. However, we cannot go to the other extreme and close them. We must make the legal path to citizenship more accessible by clearing backlogs and speeding up the application process.
As Americans, we stand to lose everything our country was founded on if we do not fix our badly broken immigration system.
The 12 million illegal immigrants living in the United States are not going away, and countless others will die trying to join them. Illegal immigration affects us all, so we all benefit from a real solution.

Spotlight On: The Irony of U.S. Immigration Laws
On April 16, The Jewish Week ran an op-ed written by HIAS President and CEO Gideon Aronoff that explores the material support bar that is applied to refugees in the United States. In an ironic twist, under today's sweeping anti-terrorism laws, participants in the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising would be barred from entry. Aronoff points out that:
Even those refugees, whose actions in support of terrorist groups were forced or coerced, have been barred from this country under DHS's interpretation of the law. According to DHS, duress is not an excuse: any contribution to a terrorist group - even if it was made at gunpoint or under threat of death - constitutes material support to terrorism. The motives, circumstances and beliefs of the refugee are irrelevant.

The administration does have the discretionary authority to ensure that individuals who fall under this expansive definition of terrorism are not treated unjustly. Despite the fact that in December 2007, Congress broadened this authority even further and gave DHS the ability to issue "waivers" in nearly all of these cases, DHS chose to send these letters without considering whether these individuals could or should be granted permission to remain in the U.S. The letters specifically state that the decision is final and that there is no right of appeal.

Fortunately, Chertoff's agency stopped sending these letters in March, and in response to public outcry has promised to review all of the cases it has denied. It remains to be seen how these cases ultimately will be considered, and whether DHS will decide any time soon that these refugees can stay.

Chertoff would do well to recall the valiant fighters of the Warsaw Ghetto as his agency contemplates how to treat refugees who are not supporters of terrorism, and are in fact themselves victims of tyranny and oppression.
Click here to read the full op-ed.

***

CONTACTING YOUR LEGISLATORS

Click Here to find your Senators' contact information.

Click Here to find your Representative's contact information.

HIAS Washington DC
1775 K Street, NW, Suite 320
Washington, D.C. 20006
www.hias.org

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Issues Policy Resolutions Action Alerts Advocacy Updates
	HIAS in Washington: Week in Review *Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society - Over 126 Years of Experience in Rescue, Reunion, and Resettlement* The HIAS Washington DC office invites you to join its email updates list. If you are concerned about the plight of refugees, immigrants and asylum seekers, the HIAS in Washington listserv will keep you up to date with concise weekly emails covering top stories and highlighting current HIAS efforts. You will also receive HIAS Action Alerts and Special Reports about refugees and other immigrants at risk. Subscribe now! Latest Issue HIAS in Washington: Week in Review May 2, 2008 In this issue… Dangerous Passage: Desperate Migrants Attempt to Reach the UK Desperate People Take Extreme Measures: Lessons from the Jewish Experience Flawed Bill 287(g) Fails to Pass in Arizona Border Trip Puts a Human Face on Migration Spotlight On: The Irony of U.S. Immigration Laws Dangerous Passage: Desperate Migrants Attempt to Reach the UK* As a result of increasingly restrictive immigration laws and policies in Western countries and worsening macro-economic conditions at home, migrants are resorting to ever more dangerous tactics to cross borders. In northern France, thousands of undocumented migrants each year from the Middle East, Asia and Africa attempt to make the dangerous crossing into Britain, attracted by economic opportunities. Once in the port cities of northern France, migrants attempt to stow away on trucks or ships while others pay smugglers to help get them into the UK. A recent New York Times article highlighted the desperate situation of undocumented migrants in northern France, pointing out that: Still, thousands of migrants, mostly Afghans, Kurds and Eritreans, flock to Calais and other northern French ports each year, where they huddle in makeshift camps and try to dodge the police as they wait for the chance to make the dangerous crossing. French efforts to shut down the camps and arrest the migrants have done little to deter them from seeking a better future in Britain, drawn by the English language, the absence of national identity cards and the possibility of illegal work. The passage is rough. Britain says that it thwarted 18,000 illicit attempts to get to England last year. Truck drivers often take matters into their own hands, beating stowaways for damaging their loads. But the migrants are desperate. On a recent night, a group stood around a fire in a derelict sawmill behind the Calais train station as melt from a late spring snow dripped through the roof. One 22-year-old, fleeing open-ended military service in Eritrea, drew a glowing metal rod from the embers and dragged it slowly across his fingertips, searing off his fingerprints. "It doesn't hurt," he said, displaying hands yellow with scar tissue. Like other migrants interviewed for this article, he would not give his name. Others, also hoping to dodge the European fingerprint database, use razor blades. The camps around Calais have become semipermanent way stations on the migration route to Britain from Asia and the Horn of Africa. Today's migrants, mostly men in their 20s and many minors, have paid too much and come too far to turn back here, despite their precarious existence. Desperate People Take Extreme Measures: Lessons from the Jewish Experience Desperate migrants taking extreme measures to cross borders is also a pressingly real problem in the United States. A recent Editorial in the Jewish News of Greater Phoenix explores the history of Jewish migration to the United States, much of which took place illegally around the turn of the 19th century. The editorial quotes HIAS President and CEO Gideon Aronoff, who notes that: "One need not, and should not, condone the practice of undocumented migration," writes Gideon Aronoff, head of the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, "but can understand that desperate people take extreme measures." Aronoff goes on to point out that the U.S. immigration system did not impose visa limits for low-skilled immigrant workers until after 1921 - in other words, after the wave that brought most of the ancestors of today's Jewish Americans to the United States - and that today's migrants face "an unreasonable annual quota of only 5,000 slots." Nevertheless, immigrants keep dreaming of a better life here. And, in turn, the American economy has come to depend on them. Flawed Bill 287(g) Fails to Pass in Arizona Due to the inability of Congress to pass comprehensive immigration reform measures, some communities and towns have implemented harsh, punitive policies against undocumented migrants. On Monday, April 28th, Governor Janet Napolitano of Arizona bucked this trend and vetoed bill 287(g), decrying its expense and impracticality. An April 30th New York Times article explained: Governor Napolitano dismissed the bill as impractical and expensive. She said it would have imposed an undue burden on local law enforcement, calculating that the cost of training that many officers under the federal program known as 287(g) could total $100 million - with no guarantee that the federal government would pay. She also could have called it dangerous. The bill would have turned practically every level of law enforcement in Arizona into some form of the feared la migra. Police chiefs across the country warn that would cripple their ability to investigate crime in immigrant communities. The 287(g) program is also far too prone to abuse. That is already flagrantly clear in Arizona's most populous county, Maricopa, where Sheriff Joe Arpaio has built the biggest 287(g) posse in the country - 160 officers - and deployed it in Hispanic neighborhoods, pulling people over for broken taillights and other traffic infractions and checking papers. Defenders of the Maricopa raids deny accusations of racial profiling, but it is hard to see it as anything else. The highly publicized sweeps have reaped bumper crops of fear and anger among Latino Arizonans - citizens and illegal immigrants - who have endured the stops, the flashing lights, the requests for papers. Border Trip Puts a Human Face on Migration Currently, there are 12 million undocumented immigrants in the United States. Recent debates over immigration policy, such as bill 287(g), have focused attention on enforcement measures instead of comprehensive immigration reform. It is easy to forget that there are real people risking their lives each day to cross the US-Mexico border. According to the Latin American Working Group, between October 2006 and November 2007 alone, there were 340 deaths along the border. On a recent trip to the Arizona border, Rabbi Steve Gutow witnessed a number of undocumented migrants wandering through the desert. He reflects on this experience in an April 28th article in the Arizona Daily Star, noting that: How we treat the 12 million like them who are already here in many ways colors who we are as Americans. How we react to those who want to enter our borders and become part of our country says a lot about how well we remember our own stories when we were immigrants looking for a safe haven from religious and ethnic persecution, a place to rest and live and prosper. Citizenship must be attained lawfully - by no means should this country open its borders. However, we cannot go to the other extreme and close them. We must make the legal path to citizenship more accessible by clearing backlogs and speeding up the application process. As Americans, we stand to lose everything our country was founded on if we do not fix our badly broken immigration system. The 12 million illegal immigrants living in the United States are not going away, and countless others will die trying to join them. Illegal immigration affects us all, so we all benefit from a real solution. Spotlight On: The Irony of U.S. Immigration Laws On April 16, The Jewish Week ran an op-ed written by HIAS President and CEO Gideon Aronoff that explores the material support bar that is applied to refugees in the United States. In an ironic twist, under today's sweeping anti-terrorism laws, participants in the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising would be barred from entry. Aronoff points out that: Even those refugees, whose actions in support of terrorist groups were forced or coerced, have been barred from this country under DHS's interpretation of the law. According to DHS, duress is not an excuse: any contribution to a terrorist group - even if it was made at gunpoint or under threat of death - constitutes material support to terrorism. The motives, circumstances and beliefs of the refugee are irrelevant. The administration does have the discretionary authority to ensure that individuals who fall under this expansive definition of terrorism are not treated unjustly. Despite the fact that in December 2007, Congress broadened this authority even further and gave DHS the ability to issue "waivers" in nearly all of these cases, DHS chose to send these letters without considering whether these individuals could or should be granted permission to remain in the U.S. The letters specifically state that the decision is final and that there is no right of appeal. Fortunately, Chertoff's agency stopped sending these letters in March, and in response to public outcry has promised to review all of the cases it has denied. It remains to be seen how these cases ultimately will be considered, and whether DHS will decide any time soon that these refugees can stay. Chertoff would do well to recall the valiant fighters of the Warsaw Ghetto as his agency contemplates how to treat refugees who are not supporters of terrorism, and are in fact themselves victims of tyranny and oppression. Click here to read the full op-ed. * CONTACTING YOUR LEGISLATORS Click Here to find your Senators' contact information. Click Here to find your Representative's contact information. HIAS Washington DC 1775 K Street, NW, Suite 320 Washington, D.C. 20006 www.hias.org Subscribe Now to HIAS in Washington: Week in Review!** To subscribe to the HIAS in Washington listserv, please email Jennifer.Hollinger@hias.org with "subscribe to HIAS in DC listserv" in the subject line and include your contact information in the text of the email. To unsubscribe from the HIAS in Washington listserv, please email Jennifer.Hollinger@hias.org with "unsubscribe from HIAS in DC listserv" in the subject line.